If
we just endure to walk in the narrow path. If we just cross the valley
of tears, carrying the cross, despite of the world's prosecution, then
the Holy Spirit is our salvation, the intercession of our endeavor and
our the only support for our comfort. Whoever experienced the Holy
Spirit amid hardship, then the can challenge the pains and will not
care about hardship, "In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul." (Ps. 94:19). P Isaiah the prophet: He pictured for us the embracing of the Holy Spirit of the human soul, like a nursing mother carrying he suckling in her arms. She coddles her child on her knees and nurses him from her comforting breast. The Spirit was over flowing from the hearts of the martyrs, so they forgot their sufferings. Their hearts were full of morality, so they rejected all earthly comfort… One of the fathers said, ‘I haven't tasted compassion, but I have tasted a superior compassion.’
The Spirit of Truth
The divine truth is not to change or to die. We have seen this full truth in Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6). "For this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." (John 18:37), "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) and "My flesh is food indeed."
(John 6:55). The work of the Holy Spirit in us is the observation of
Jesus within us. His features will be printed on us and others would
picture us as the sons of the truth… It will guide us and lead us to
all the truth, as the Lord said, "I have given them the Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."
(John 17:14). It is not enough for the Truth to be within us, but for
us to be witness of the Truth. Absolutely it will not be acceptable for
one to lean towards, hypocrisy, favoritism, falsehood, lie,
accusations, unjust, misleading, untruthfulness and such things in the
worldly path. The Holy Spirit doesn't rest with anything but the Truth.
The Spirit of Reprove
The Lord said, "And when He has come,
He will convict the world of sin, and the righteousness, and of
judgment of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness,
because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because
the ruler of this world is judged." (John 16:8-11).
To Reprove from Sin
The
first work of the Holy Spirit within us is to reprove… The first day,
when the Spirit spoke through the mouth of Peter the apostle, the words
were, "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart."
(Acts 2:37). He strongly reproves and screams within us with sighs,
unspoken to awake and move our conscious. He wakes us up to repent, and
we cried out asking, ‘What to do?’ And He answers us, "Then all the
land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all
baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins." (Mark
1:5). The Holy Spirit is against the sin wherever it is, because the
nature of the divine grace doesn't accept evil and can't withstand
defile.
That
is why we find the Holy Spirit reproving us for every sin, even if in
our opinion the sin is simple and harmless. The Spirit knows the harm
from the sin, its destructive power and its corruptness. The Spirit
doesn't leave a situation in which, even if the form of evil is
present, but It reproves us. The Spirit specializes in the heart and
the soul, which are purified by the Spirit's fire. It becomes so
sensitive to the sound of reprove, until it answers with tears of
repentance to the call from within.
To day on the Feast of the Pentecost, we return and ask ourselves, is the sound of reprove
of the Holy Spirit still heard within us? We remember our childhood,
when we felt how our Spirit moved with our first experience with sin,
and the start of our fall… But when we continue in our sinful path, the
volume of this sound was slowly reduced until we no longer hear any
reprove, or feel internal sadness or pain… Did the Spirit leave us and
migrated from our lives? No my dear… But we got used to not hearing the
sound. We stiffened our hearts and we are steadfast in our will. The
sound became sad within us due to silencing the repentance. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Eph. 4:30).
Reprove the virtue
This
is the reprove for not doing enough of positive deeds. It is also the
reprove for not having the fruit of the Holy Spirit within us, for not
growing and not being wrapped in the virtue of Jesus.
The work of the
Holy Spirit is not just to refrain from sin and stand passively proud for
not lying, not swearing and not harming anyone. This is not
Christianity. But the Holy Spirit wants Jesus' virtue and grace to be
within us. It encourages us, guides us and completes our lives. It
paves for us the way to repentance piety and the path to the Truth.
The Holy Spirit simplifies the way and makes it desirable for every
help and growth that materializes before the soul. Then if the soul
neglects its work, left its chance behind, then it falls into the
reprove of the Spirit and a heavy movement.
The Holy Spirit reveals the lives of the holy fathers and the
worshipers before us, as a living example of its work within them, and
for us to lean towards them. So every time we hear a lesson about the
early fathers, or a story about a martyr, our hearts would be on fire,
desiring to be like them, and to follow in their steps. That is why,
when we mention them, we are stimulated that much into the involvement
in virtues. Why is it that we want to give? Isn't that because of the
Holy Spirit reprove for virtue? "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you will hear His voice. Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'" (Heb. 3:7, 8). The saints are characterized by being obedient to the Holy Spirit right from the first sign and call.
Reprove for Judgement
The Lord said, "Because the ruler of this world is judged."
(John 16:11). Now Satan has lost his power which he previously
possessed. The old serpent was crushed. The Lord Jesus told His
disciples, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." (Luke 10:18) and "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out."
(John 12:31). So what is our excuse when we sin? Why then do we
obligate ourselves to the prince of this world? All that is left for us
is to wait for a terrifying judgement.
Ezekiel the Prophet: It was proclaimed to him by the hands of God's angel that the spiritual water will gush out of the right side from the altar's southern end. The sources
of the Spirit are not found outside the church, or away from the
sacraments. Therefore, everyone who approaches the altar feels the
spiritual current exiting like a river of living water. "He measured
one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water
came up to my ankles. Again he measured one thousand and brought me
through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured
one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.
Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not
cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a
river that could not be crossed." (Ezek. 47:3-5). The spiritual
life path is where the, spiritual ones are guided by the angel's hands
(the priest and guide). The deeper we enter the more angelic guidance
we need.
The Spirit starts from the ankles, the place of humility. Who wants to
taste the gift of the Holy Spirit, must go down to the ankle level. "But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." (Is. 66:2).
The Spirit starts from the ankles. This symbolizes the spiritual life
that starts with the washing of the feet and the repentance.
The Spirit starts from the feet, not from the chest or upper aloft
areas, not from the higher positions or leaderships. The Spirit starts
from the soles of the feet, away from show off.
The spiritual growth is a natural one… The foot stage should be
completed (one thousand cubits one full stage). Those who do not
complete the time of their repentance, they fail in their spiritual
path.
The move from one spiritual stage to another is not felt by the soul,
which is spiritually deep, for there are no boundaries or separations
as long as there is a slow and gradual growth in depth, this is a
natural spiritual growth.
Many would like to be spiritually deep in an instant, but this is not
the spiritual path. The saints reached the depth through many of years
and the exhausting efforts, through prayers, fasting, late observations
and relentlessly training on virtues in all its stages.
Resources 
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